Articles

So here are some articles I've been saving mostly about biological things. Scroll to the bottom to hear an old guy rant about noisy Rock 'n Roll.

Feeling No Pain: New Form of Rare Gene Disorder Decoded

• Across the world about a few hundred people suffer from one of a variety of diseases that make them completely unable to feel pain from the time they're born.
• Surprisingly, the families were unrelated, but all of the afflicted members had mutations to the same gene

Naked Mole Rats Unable to Feel Burning Pain

• the hairless, finger-size rats are numb to the burning sensation that almost every other mammal feels when exposed to acids and hot peppers
• The researchers also found that nerve connections in the naked mole rat's spinal column are different than those of any other animal.
• The findings may lead to new treatments for human sufferers of dull, steady post-surgery pain

Profs study use of sensors in combat helmets

• The sensors, which are smaller than a pinhead, would continuously monitor brain activity and detect any change due to explosions, physical contact or other trauma. The sensors would record changes in the brain, such as blood oxygen levels and heart rates, and wireless technology would transmit the data to an off-site computer.

Tea instead of Toothbrush to Banish Bad Breath

• It’s impossible to get rid of these bacteria using only a toothbrush. But there is one thing that kills these bacteria – tea. Part of nature, people with get old and generations will not understand each other. It makes this guy seem really old.

Imitating Nature by Self healing materials

• Materials’ properties degrade over time due to cracks on a microscopic scale that ultimately lead to failure of the material. In the biological world there are built-in mechanisms that continuously sense damage and repair it. In the field of materials science researchers are now trying to engineer this type of behaviour into man-made materials, hence called self healing materials. There are already a few such materials but new research and development has focussed on materials that repair within minutes of damage.
• one in the US and one in the UK — have independently tried to create composite materials that mend themselves if damaged. In a manner akin to the self healing process of an animal’s broken bone
• The American initiative by Jeff Moore and his colleagues at the University of Illinois focusses on the problem by adding extra components to composites. Like most such materials, these composites comprise fibers, carbon fibers in this case, embedded in a plastic matrix (an epoxy resin).

No appreciation for noisy rock ’n’ roll

• To me, rock is something like a wrestling match, or a riot, with it's banging, pounding, crashing, shrieking, yelling, howling.
• The shrill was so ear-splitting that it was impossible to undertake a conversation or hear the lyrics, if there were any. Screaming, I surmised, was meant to get the crowd to gyrate along with the thumping and pounding of the musicians. Some rockers act like they're having a seizure and should be hauled away to the emergency room.
• the screwy names rock performers use...Big Head Todd and the Monsters, Toad the Wet Sprocket, Cheap Trick, Grand Funk Railroad, Sister Hazel, Better Than Ezra. Led Zeppelin and, of course, Grateful Dead.
• Well, rock is bad enough, but there's a new song invention that has generated millions of dollars for its performers, if you can call them that. It's rap, one of the biggest con games ever created. If anyone really believes that reciting paragraphs instead of singing is music, I have a special deal for you. I own 100 original copies of the U.S. Constitution, each written in longhand. I'll sell them for $100 each, two for the bargain of $200.